


to become a kingsman

by brookeluvsdogs



Category: Dunkirk (2017)
Genre: Gibson's Real Name Is Philippe Hugo Guillet, Kingsman AU, Modern Setting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 01:07:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24066331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brookeluvsdogs/pseuds/brookeluvsdogs
Summary: Tommy, Philippe, and Alex are all part of the new recruitment for the next Kingsman agent. Being down to the last three competitors, tensions are high - especially when they're asked to get information from the same target at the same time.
Relationships: Gibson/Tommy (Dunkirk)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 9





	to become a kingsman

**Author's Note:**

> Entry for the Dunkirk-creators AU prompt! 
> 
> listen I just really love kingsman

The objective was simple enough – put your Neuro-Linguistic Programming training into practice to obtain information from the target. He who succeeds, wins.

But, despite the simplicity of the mission, Tommy felt nervous. He had never been naturally charismatic and even faking it proved difficult at times. Not like Philippe who could ease people to his side without having to break out NLP training. Or even Alex who somehow managed to lure people in despite being an asshole 99% of the time. Tommy’s awkward social advances made him better suited to physical missions and sticking to shadowy corners. Still, he’d passed similar missions before – there was every bit of evidence he could pull it off again.

He glanced up at his competitors. The three of them sat in a roomy black cab – one of the benefits of being associated with Kingsman was that they were no longer condemned to stuffy taxi rides and chatty uber drivers. Tommy had chosen he seat next to Alex with Philippe on the opposite side, and not on accident. Having to suffer sitting next to Alex was well worth the full view he had of Philippe.

Although he usually dressed smartly, Philippe had stepped up his game tonight tenfold. He was dressed in a handsome deep red suit with a white shirt unbuttoned enough just to skirt the line of classy and suggestive. The gold from his cufflinks glinted with every passing streetlight. On top of that, his hair was perfect too, in the way that it always was – even at 5am fitness trainings.

Throughout their time at Kingsman, Tommy had found himself drawn to Philippe at every corner. And, to Tommy’s surprise, it seemed Philippe wound up at his shoulder even when he wasn’t seeking the older boy out. For all his NLP training he couldn’t work out why the two of them had such a pull to each other. Or why every time he saw Philippe headed his way, he felt his heart flip in his chest.

“Well, may the best man win!” Alex announced, voice already loud and brimming with confidence.

“I supposed you think that’s you?” Philippe countered, not bothering to look up from where he was fixing his sleeve.

Tommy had always admired the way the other man handled Alex’s taunts. Where Tommy’s tactic was to ignore them, Philippe always humoured him in a bored voice. The deep tone to his accent making it clear he wasn’t _actually_ interested in conversation. Time after time, Alex fell for the ruse – digging himself a hole Philippe never failed to fill in after him.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if I was,” Alex replied. “It’s between the two of us – with Tommy’s NLP scores he’ll barely make it past the bouncer.”

Alex nudged his shoulder into Tommy’s with a chuckle. Tommy didn’t give him the satisfaction of a reaction – letting the jab die in the following silence. He was beginning to regret choosing this side of the cab. But a small kick from Philippe, followed by a knowing smile while Alex started prattling again, soothed said regret.

Despite Alex’s jest, Tommy _did_ make it past the bouncer – scanning the room as the three of them headed to the bar. The target was easy enough to spot in her head-to-toe sequins, looking bored as some poor fool attempted to talk to her. She was an heiress with a fortune sat like a halo atop her blonde head; an Oxford graduate turned socialite. If Tommy had been worried about his low NLP scores before, seeing her brush off a potential suitor with a hair flip did nothing to make him feel more comfortable.

“Nervous?” Philippe had sided up to him as they waited for Alex to decide which pretentious beverage was going to get him through the front door. When Tommy looked at him confused, he spoke again. “You read like an open book. You have the training, there is nothing to worry about.”

“I’m not worried,” Tommy replied despite the nerves threatening his stomach.

Philippe didn’t buy it, raising his eyebrows knowingly. If there was anything inconvenient about their connection it was that the other man was able to pick out Tommy’s weaknesses with ease. Philippe looked towards Alex and then leaned back in, closer than before. Tommy could feel his breath dance lightly over his skin. He knew it was only so the brunet could speak without being overheard but it felt strangely intimate, like Philippe was about to confess his deepest secret.

“Let Alex fail first,” Philippe’s gaze was both soft and intense, the way it always defaulted to when talking strategies. “If I may be honest, for this task you are my real competition.”

“Shouldn’t you be saving your tactics?” Tommy countered, feeling embarrassingly touched by Philippe’s compliment. Like it had singled him out as being the brightest and best. “Why not let both of us crash?”

“It is no fun without a fair fight,” he grinned, showcasing his perfect set of teeth.

Tommy wanted to hate him for his lack of flaws, and had even tried to the first few weeks, but the act was in vein. In the end, he had decided it would be better to have him on-side anyway.

“What are you dickhead’s whispering about,” Alex broke the quiet tension, clapping Philippe’s back in faux friendliness as he looked out at the room. “You two dumbasses could have had a head start.”

“Be our guest,” Philippe said, dropping the grin and nodding in the direction of the target. “We’re right behind you.”

“Right,” Alex squinted at them with suspicion before clinking his douchey champagne glass against theirs and heading across the bar.

“Watch,” Philippe murmured, voice returning to its lower tone now Alex had left. Tommy felt the word hit the base of his neck and travel down his spine with a shiver. He had to struggle to shift his eyes from Philippe in time to witness Alex’s fall from grace.

Even from across the room, through a sea of people, it was easy to make out how uninterested the target was in Alex’s good looks and carefully cultivated drink of choice. Tommy watched as she gave him a bored smile and repeated the hair flip of disengagement from before. Still, Alex keep talking – it wasn’t in his nature to give in so easy.

“He really is a dick,” Tommy said after watching them for a minute. Philippe grinned again in response, confirming the opinion to be mutual.

“See,” he said. “Now we go rescue her.”

Philippe placed a hand on the small of Tommy’s back, guiding him to their fallen rival. He knew it was just Philippe being Philippe but again, the gesture seemed so intimate that he had to remind himself how his legs worked so he didn’t freeze at the contact. A voice at the back of his head wondered how he was meant to charm the target instead of seethe jealously at her interacting with the other man. Once they reached the table, the hand dropped from Tommy’s back. The absence felt comparable to losing a limb.

“Sorry about my friend here,” Philippe apologised smoothly. “He has a niche talent of talking himself to ruin.”

Tommy noticed with a start that he had thickened his accent in an attempt to be more alluring. And, that it had worked. The target’s body language had completely changed. Instead of pointing herself to block Alex’s attempted advance, she now angled her body in a way that indicated she was open to conversation. She had even brought a hand up to twirl a finger in her hair.

“You could always buy me a drink to make up for it,” she smiled charmingly.

“Alex, would you?” Philippe patted his chest – mirroring the fake camaraderie Alex himself tended to use. Alex huffed, deciding obtaining drinks would land him back in their target’s good graces more than an argument would.

“Eliza,” the blonde said, extending a hand to Tommy.

Philippe dug an elbow subtly into Tommy’s side, urging him to speak.

“Tommy,” he managed to get out with a smile, shaking her hand before gesturing to his side. “And Philippe.”

“Thank you for being saviours,” she smiled, patting the booth beside her in invitation. “I was unaware one man had so much to say about himself.”

“I wouldn’t thank us yet,” Tommy laughed, any nerves easing as he settled into the booth beside her.

With an official start to the mission he felt much more relaxed. If there was anything he could pride himself on - his ability to switch off and focus on missions was one of Tommy’s biggest credits.

“No doubt he’ll be back with drinks and vengeance,” Philippe agreed, earning a laugh from their target.

It was clear the three of them had some degree of natural rapport, succeeding where Alex had failed. The trio chatted idlily about where they each went to school, what jobs they had (Philippe was in business, Tommy a risk analyst) – all information the two in-training Kingsmen already knew but, the conversation was enough of a gateway to bigger topics. Though, before they could get any real information - Alex returned to the group, champagne bottle in hand.

To Tommy’s annoyance, Eliza seemed to have opened up enough to let Alex enter the conversation with little resistance. A few jabs about his self-interested tendencies and he was on even playing field with the others. Just as Alex was mid-way through another tale about how dashingly hilarious he was – Eliza’s phone rang. She glanced down with a wince.

“Sorry boys, I have to take this,” she said with genuinely apology. “I’ll be right back, give me two minutes.”

“See you in a bit, yeah?” Tommy smiled with a wave.

Once she had left, weaving through the crowd to find a quiet spot to take her call, the three competitors back towards each other.

“I think she’s in love with me,” Alex said smugly.

Tommy laughed as Philippe rolled his eyes.

“How can anyone fall in love with you when it is so clear the only thing you love is yourself,” Philippe said, sipping from his glass.

Now conversation had lulled, Tommy realised he was tired. And not just a little sleepy. He felt like his whole body was about to shut down. As he looked across the table at is companions, he noticed both of them looked how he felt.

“Fuck I’m tired, how long do you think this’ll take,” Alex commented, confirming Tommy’s observations.

At that moment a bartender stopped at their table. He was older, his features rodent-like, a bottle of champagne in his hands. Tommy wondered groggily if they had ordered another bottle, but he couldn’t muster enough coherency to remember.

“Sorry to interrupt,” he said. “But I’m afraid you all have somewhere else to be.”

A sneer spread across his face as he spoke. Tommy looked at Philippe and Alex in confusion, seeing the same heavy-lidded perplexity on their faces. He barely had time to think before the exhaustion began to take over his whole body. He turned to the man again and realised with a jolt, that they had been drugged. The realization felt far away, right in the back corner of his mind and when he went to warn the others he saw it was too late. He watched with dismay as Alex’s head slumped against Philippe’s shoulder second before his own hit the table in front of him.

+++

When Tommy blinked his eyes open, the first thing he noticed was how cold the air was - his jacket doing nothing to protect him from the continuous rush of cool air. The second was the restraints holding down each of his limbs. A rush of panic flooded through his veins as he struggled for a few seconds. Though he was quick to realise his efforts were in vein and resorted to surveying the area around him for anything that could help.

The room was cavernous; clearly man-made and totally empty. The walls were bricked and evidence of graffiti covered large spaces; adding a dull colour to the otherwise monotonous tunnel. He could feel cool metal against his wrist – a contrast to the slight rope burn he had earned from struggling. An educated guess told him he was tied to a track of sorts – one he had to hope was abandoned. His eyes strained against the dark as he lifted his head towards his feet. As it turned out - he wasn’t completely alone.

“Good Morning, Thomas,” an almost chipper voice came from the dark in front of him. “Sleep well?”

The waiter from the bar stepped forward. His rat-like features even more apparent in the dimly lit tunnel – if Tommy wasn’t tied to train tracks, he might have laughed at how fitting his appearance was. A knife has replaced the champagne bottle in his hand – an incentive, information for freedom.

“What do you want,” Tommy tugged against the ropes as an act of defiance.

Rat-man checked his watch casually before peering down the tunnel. “I only have a few questions; I’m afraid our little interview will have to be rather short.”

Tommy didn’t reply. His brain running a mile a minute trying to find a way out of his restraints. The situation was looking more dire by the second. If he made it out of here, there would surely be a lesson in the danger of under-preparing for missions. He spared a woeful thought for the penknife on his desk that would have been oh-so-easy to have slipped under his shirt cuff.

“First, I need the name of your employer,” The man sneered. “We know you work with Kingsman under ‘Gawain’, but you see, my boy, we’re looking for full names. _Real_ names.”

Tommy bristled at the pet name. “What makes you think I have any idea.”

“For your sake, I hope you do.”

As if on cue, a horn sounded deep from the direction the man had checked earlier. Tommy turned to see headlights glaring from the tunnel. They were a ways off – a few hundred meters at least – but he knew if he didn’t find a way out within the next 60 seconds he was as good as dead. Heart beating faster, Tommy struggled again against the rope. The tracks had begun to vibrate with such intensity that he had to lift his head to avoid scrambling his thoughts any further.

“I’m gonna need some names, Thomas!” The man’s face was lit with a sickening grin as he shouted above the noise. It was a grin that knew with whatever outcome, he will have broken Tommy. Mentally or physically, he didn’t care. He seemed to take joy just from watching the kid struggle.

“I’m not telling you SHIT,” Tommy yelled, keeping his eyes on the approaching train. With a final tug, he resigned himself to the fact he wasn’t getting out without giving up information. And even then, there was no real guarantee of his safety. 

The guy clearly didn’t have much information – the Kingsman agents had codenames in place for a reason. Tommy had no cause to believe he knew anything more than a single word and there was no way in hell he was about to offer any more.

“I just killed two of your friends who gave me the same bullshit bravado,” he shouted. The wind whipped at his coat – a sliver of frustration creeping into his features. Tommy’s heart sank at his words, but he took what little comfort he could knowing any easy information would die with him now. Even Alex had managed not to screw up this final test.

The train was close enough now that he could hear the screech of the wheels against the track, the thunderous noise ricocheting through the tunnel. A strange sense of calm washed over him as he watched sparks fly from the grating metal. There wasn’t any time left for him to think now – only enough to brace for impact and relish in the fact he wouldn’t crack under pressure. What happened to him now was entire on the rat-man’s shoulders.

“Last chance! Is Kingsman really worth dying for?” the man yelled his final words into the shriek of the train. Tommy ignored him, squeezing his eyes shut in anticipation.

He waited the few seconds for the impact of the vehicle. And then he waited a few more. And then a few more. For a moment he thought he might be dead. His end being so quick he hadn’t even had time to feel the crushing pain before being hurtled into whatever afterlife he was now in. Then, he opened his eyes to the same tunnel with its’ graffitied brick walls. Except he was lower than before. In the chaos of almost being pummeled he’d neglected to register that his section of the track had dropped a few feet lower than the rest.

Confused, Tommy strained forward to question his rat-faced antagonist to find none other than Gawain himself. His clothes were the same, knife still glinted happily in his right hand, but the sharp features had been replaced by that of his mentor.

“Congratulations, Tommy! You’ve passed the test, son,” Bolton stepped over the tracks to cut the ropes, extending a helping hand to Tommy once he was free.

“How?” Tommy pointed dumbly to his own face.

Bolton only smiled. “Trick of the trade. C’mon, Alex’s next and we have premium seats.”

“And Philippe?”

“Already passed. They’re up in the observation room with Collins already,” his mentor placed a comforting hand on Tommy’s back as he pointed him in the direction of a stone staircase camouflaged into the wall.

Now that he was off the tracks the adrenaline was wearing off quickly. He almost felt embarrassed for getting worked up about almost being hit by a train now he knew it was just a test. Still, his legs felt like jelly as he ascended the stairs. He was exhausted, a little dispirited, but he was safe. Or at least, safer than he was two minutes ago.

Any feeling of inadequacy was quickly squashed when he saw Philippe in the observation room. His fellow competitor looked at tousled as Tommy felt, dirt had sullied the back of his suit jacket and his hair was back to its standard degree of perfect. He offered Tommy a warm smile, congratulating him on his success before they settled to watch Alex’s turn.

**Author's Note:**

> manners maketh man or whatever 
> 
> between you and me, I have more world building for this so if you want more please let me know
> 
> tumblr: eggsyjpg


End file.
